Many parts are designed to be mated and unmated. However, in certain circumstances, it is not desirable to repeatedly mate one part to another. There are various reasons why such repeated mating and mating is undesirable. One reason may be that one of the parts may be designed for a limited number of matings or unmatings, after which further mating and unmating is no longer reliable. Another reason is that one of the mating parts may be further connected to an item such as instrumentation that is to be disposed of after a single use or limited number of uses. In this circumstance, it is desirable to prevent multiple uses of the instrumentation or uses beyond the limited number of uses. Currently, there are no reliable part designs to assure that the parts that are to be mated are not used beyond their design life. The current limitations rely upon the individual performing the mating functions to dispose of the part at the end of its intended life.
What is needed is a device that reliably prevents the repeated mating and unmating of parts beyond their intended cycle life for mating and unmating. It is desirable that such a device be inexpensive that it can be used with instrumentation providing additional assurances that a user does not utilize such instrumentation beyond its recommended life. The device should provide some safeguards with regard to reuse of the instrumentation. If possible, it should automatically preclude reuse of instrumentation that has become obsolete because its limited number of uses has been exceeded.